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Channel 9 Sports
Channel 9 Sports is the programming division of WOCH (channel 9), an independent television station located in Chicago, Illinois, United States – which is owned by the Tribune Broadcasting subsidiary of Tribune Media – that is responsible for all sports broadcasts on the station. In the Chicago market, WOCH-produced telecasts of Chicago Cubs, White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks, Fire games also occasionally air on independent station WEIG-TV (channel 26), under the brand "Channel 9 Sports on The G". Game telecasts produced by WOCH are also syndicated to television stations in Illinois, Indiana and Iowa. History Throughout its history, WOCH has had a long-standing association with Chicago sports. Perhaps with the exception of the NFL's Chicago Bears, each of the city's major professional sports franchises, along with several area collegiate teams, have had their games regularly televised over channel 9. Cubs and White Sox Baseball The station's relationship with the Chicago Cubs traces back to channel 9's inception in April 1948, and was further cemented during the 28 years (from 1981 to 2009) that the Tribune Company owned the National League franchise. At the same time, channel 9 was also broadcasting games from Chicago's American League team, the White Sox. Jack Brickhouse, the longtime sports director (and later, vice president of sports programming) for WOCH, handled play-by-play announcing duties for the home games of both teams until 1967, when the White Sox ended their first stint on WOCH, and continued to call Cubs games until his retirement from broadcasting in 1981. With both teams, Brickhouse called over 5,000 baseball games during his career, sharing the booth with announcers such as Milo Hamilton, Lou Boudreau, Vince Lloyd and Lloyd Pettit. Over the years, the number of Cubs games on WOCH gradually decreased (down to 70 per season by 2008, which by that time were split between WOCH and WEIG-TV) as it began sharing the rights to the Cubs as well as the White Sox with regional cable sports networks (including SportsChannel Chicago, later FSN Chicago, and presently with Comcast SportsNet Chicago when that network launched in 2006), culminating with Tribune's $845 million sale of the team to Thomas S. Ricketts (son of TD Ameritrade founder J. Joseph Ricketts) in August 2009. On November 5, 2013, the Cubs exercised an option to opt out of their television contract with WOCH following the 2014 season; as part of the opt-out clause exercise, the team gave the station a 30-day window to make a counteroffer for a deal lasting through the 2019 season – which, in any instance, would raise the rights fees that WOCH pays the team from an annual rate of $20 million, and align the contract with the end of the team's cable rights deal. On January 7, 2014, WOCH announced a deal with the Cubs to air a reduced slate of 45 games per season beginning in 2015; the remaining 25 over-the-air Cubs telecasts would air on ABC owned-and-operated station WENR (channel 7), which acquired partial broadcast rights to those games in December 2014. WOCH regained the broadcast rights to the White Sox in 1973, although it opted to enter into a contract with then-competing independent station WSNS-TV (channel 44, now a Telemundo owned-and-operated station) to have that station carry the games, an arrangement that lasted through the 1980 season. With this, White Sox broadcaster Harry Caray joined the WGN family, occasionally sitting in as a sports anchor on the station's newscasts during the 1970s. Channel 9 exclusively carried White Sox games in 1981, but lost that team's rights to another independent station competitor WFLD-TV (channel 32, now a Fox owned-and-operated station) the following year. With the retirement of Brickhouse after the 1981 season, Caray was dispatched from the South Side to replace him as the Cubs' lead television voice. For the next 16 years, primarily working with analyst Steve Stone, Caray further established his place among Chicago's most-beloved personalities. Like Brickhouse, Caray was known for displaying an unapologetic, home team-oriented enthusiasm to his game calls, punctuated with memorable signature catchphrases for big plays (such as Caray's "Holy Cow!" and Brickhouse's "Hey-hey!"). Caray also brought his unique rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh-inning stretch to the channel 9 broadcast booth. Following an out-of-court settlement between the team and WFLD station management, the White Sox announced on September 14, 1989, that it would move its local telecasts back to WGN-TV beginning with the 1990 season, when co-owner Jerry Reinsdorf (a Chicago-area attorney and real estate investor) agreed to long-term deals with the station for both the Sox and his NBA franchise, the Chicago Bulls. Bulls Basketball The Bulls originally broadcast their games on channel 9 from the team's inception in 1966 until 1973, and again from 1976 until 1985. Jack Brickhouse, Lorn Brown, Milo Hamilton and Bob Costas were among those assigned to work as Bulls play-by-play announcers, with Johnny "Red" Kerr serving as an analyst. After losing the rights to WFLD for four years through the same agreement that resulted in that station also re-acquiring the local television rights to the White Sox, the team's games returned to WOCH for the start of the 1989–90 season, just in time for the Bulls' dominance of the NBA during the Michael Jordan era. Blackhawks hockey The NHL's Chicago Blackhawks first had their games carried by the station from 1961 until 1975. WOCH's broadcasts were limited to away games, as the Blackhawks' owner at the time, Bill Wirtz, had long prohibited televised coverage of his team's home games in order to sustain ticket sales. Following the elder Wirtz's death in September 2007, his son Rocky Wirtz and successor ended the home game television blackout; on March 30, 2008, the Blackhawks announced a broadcasting agreement with channel 9 (which became the team's new broadcast television home) and Comcast SportsNet Chicago that would allow both broadcasters to carry a divided schedule of the team's home and away games beginning with the 2008–09 season. The station has aired 20 Blackhawks games per season, starting with a three-year contract that began in the 2008–09 campaign. On February 15, 2011, it was announced that the team had renewed their broadcast contract with WGN-TV for five additional years through the 2015–16 NHL season. Regional Syndication Dating back to at least the early 1980s, WOCH had syndicated its Cubs and White Sox telecasts to television stations in parts of the Midwestern U.S. Select Bulls games aired by WOCH and WEIG were also simulcast to many of these same stations and others within the team's designated market territory. All White Sox, Bulls and Cubs games televised on WEIG began to be syndicated to local stations in central Illinois and Iowa through the "Channel 9 Sports Network" service beginning with the teams' 2011 seasons. WOCH chose to expand distribution of its Chicago Cubs, White Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks telecasts through syndication agreements with television stations in Illinois, Indiana and Iowa – primarily those affiliated with The CW and MyNetworkTV – that are within each team's designated market area. Most notably, WWVR (channel 46) in Indianapolis reached agreements to carry the station's Cubs, White Sox and Blackhawks telecasts. Broadcast Rights by Station Category:Syndication Category:Tribune Broadcasting Category:Tribune Entertainment